A significant number of Internet users and companies are subject to spoofing attacks wherein an attacker masquerades as another person or company. An example includes a spoofing attack known as phishing wherein an attacker tries to illegally obtain confidential information (e.g., the user's password) by sending phony e-mails or instant messages and making the user believe that the source of the communication is a legitimate company. The technique is often used to try to secure user passwords and other sensitive information such as credit card numbers, bank account information, brokerage information and generally anything that could yield a financial gain in line with fraud operations.
In accordance with the teachings provided herein, systems and methods for operation upon data processing devices are provided in order to overcome one or more of the aforementioned disadvantages or other disadvantages concerning the detection of spoofing type situations. For example, a system and method can include examining whether an electronic communication includes elements associated with a first entity's website and elements associated with a second entity's website. The examination is then used in determining whether a spoofing situation exists with respect to the received electronic communication.
As another example, a computer-implemented method and system can be provided for detecting a spoofing situation with respect to one or more electronic communications, comprising. A determination is performed as to whether the electronic communication includes a textual or graphical reference to a first entity as well as a determination as to whether the textual or graphical reference to the first entity is associated with a link to a second entity. Spoofing is detected with respect to the received electronic communication based upon the determination of whether the textual reference is associated with the link to the second entity.